HISTORY

Northwest Neighbors of Pasadena started with a bang. Literally.

A gang-related drug house in our target area was "fire bombed" by a rival gang. The house was completely destroyed. An independent contractor had a vision for restoring the home and the Pratt family, then looking for an urban neighborhood to intentionally relocate into, moved into the home. Tom Pratt began to reach out to his neighbors and to bring partners around him who were interested in a similar type of ministry.

A Christian community was planted in the Villa Parke area of Pasadena as a result. This community decided to form a vision of how to do holistic ministry in the predominately Latino immigrant community. Through this process, the group experimented with many different types of outreach and structures. These included many different types of Bible studies for adults and youth, both in Spanish and English, tutoring programs for elementary school-age children, food co-ops, ESL classes, Spanish immersion, transitional housing for young men, door-to-door prayer ministry, contact evangelism with day laborers, and going to many, many neighborhood parties.

The group decided to form a public-benefit non-profit in 1997 to facilitate our programmatic outreach, now called Northwest Neighbors of Pasadena. The non-profit currently focuses on after-school and summer programs for the youth in the Villa Parke area, as well as close mentoring and fellowship opportunities for the teens and young adults. We provide enriching and broadening experiences for the youth in our neighborhood through many local field trips as well as trips to other major cities in the U.S. and Mexico.

The spiritual aspect of our community has taken various forms as well. We are deeply connected by our mutual commitment to Christ Jesus and His love for the city. This joint commitment expresses itself in many community events, prayer and fellowship times, and Bible studies. We also partner with a number of local churches to provide our neighbors and ourselves a connection to the larger community of Christ.

Today, Northwest Neighbors continues to strive for a multi-cultural, multi-class community that reflects a picture of God that none of us could achieve on our own.